


I (Don't) Dance

by acetrainerjaimes, AVirtoMusae



Series: I (Don't) Dance [1]
Category: High School Musical (Movies)
Genre: Chad does dance (as a kid), Chad has a large family, Dance classes, Dancing, Gen, Kids, Troy is a bit thickheaded but what's new
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2017-06-03
Packaged: 2018-11-08 08:05:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11077446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acetrainerjaimes/pseuds/acetrainerjaimes, https://archiveofourown.org/users/AVirtoMusae/pseuds/AVirtoMusae
Summary: "The first time Chad Danforth met Ryan Evans was in dance class."





	I (Don't) Dance

**Author's Note:**

> The art is by acetrainerjaimes, the fic is by AVirtoMusae

The first time Chad Danforth met Ryan Evans was in dance class.

As a young child, Chad looked up to his sister Marie more than he did even his parents, and Marie loved dance. Marie Danforth did it all — or so it seemed to Chad at the time. She did ballet and tap and jazz and other dances Chad wasn’t entirely sure the name of. Chad was in kindergarten when Marie let him try on her leotard. Marie hadn’t thought anything would come of it when she taught Chad the basic foot positions for ballet, but fewer than two weeks later, Chad was begging Marie to let him go to class with her. Since Marie couldn’t take him to class with her (she’d been in dance since she was four, and that had been four years ago), she’d asked their mom if maybe she could enroll Chad in some dance classes. Their mom had agreed, and that was how Chad ended up in a ballet class as a kindergartener. 

He had been scared when he walked into the dance studio for the first time. Most of his classmates were girls, and they didn’t seem quite as inviting as Marie. There were only two other boys in the entire class. It just so happened that one of the two other boys in the class was Ryan Evans. 

Chad and Ryan didn’t talk much. People in the class didn’t really interact as much as Chad had expected from how Marie talked about her dance friends. He talked to a couple of the girls, Lisa and Deepika, and the other boy, Greg. But Ryan? Ryan hung out with his twin sister and talked to no one else. It certainly did not help Ryan’s popularity that he was clearly the best in the class, even better than his obnoxious, tantrum-prone sister. 

Chad resented him for being better but also found a respect for Ryan’s skill. Marie, he decided, was still way better than Ryan would be.

* * * * *

The next year, Chad’s mom enrolled him in two more dance classes in addition to the second level ballet. Lisa and Deepika were both in his ballet class, and Lisa was also in the tap class. It took him very little time to decide that they were his allies as well as his friends. He needed all the help he could get to withstand Ryan Evans. Ryan Evans was in his ballet, and to Chad’s surprise, the other two classes as well.Chad quickly learned this was not because Ryan was in a beginning level class but because he wanted to help show the other kids how to dance. 

It took Chad very little time to peg Ryan as a stuck-up (white) rich kid. 

On the flip side, since Sharpay was not in these classes, Ryan interacted with people more. Chad quickly found himself wishing that Ryan was not in the class too — Ryan did nothing but criticize how the other kids were dancing. It was demoralizing. About half way through his entry-level tap class, Chad snapped and walked out of the practice room, tears in his eyes, after snapping at Ryan that “I’m trying, but maybe I’m just not as good as you are!”

It took two weeks before Marie was able to coax Chad in going back to his classes. 

When he came back, Ryan almost looked relieved, but Chad did not notice. 

* * * * *

The next year, Ryan is only in one of Chad’s dance classes — ballet. Apparently after the disaster the previous year had been, Ryan had decided not to help out the teachers this year. Chad found himself relieved. Since Ryan’s sister was in that class, Chad and Ryan never talked.

* * * * *

The next year, Ryan was not in any of Chad’s dance classes. It came as a surprise. It was a fact in the dance studio that Ryan was more-or-less obsessed with dance, so the idea that Ryan might have quit was confusing. Ryan’s sister was gone too, but Chad was just relieved by that. Ryan being gone was confusing, but beyond that, it was hard to care all that much. He’d admired Ryan’s skill and hated Ryan for lording it over the rest of them. Still, it was strange, and when he asked one of his instructors, the instructor told him the Evans family had moved to New England. 

* * * * *

The next year, Ryan still wasn’t back. Chad took up hip hop in addition to his three other dance classes. Marie was in her third year of hip hop and was helping with the class. Deepika and Lisa were both taking the class, and Chad enjoyed being in the class with his dance friends and his sister. His sister and his dance friends got along, and Chad was relieved. For some reason, he found himself imagining what it would have been like for Ryan or his nasty twin sister to meet Marie and found himself very glad they had never interacted. 

* * * * *

Chad continued dancing the next year and the next. By middle school, he hated the way Troy looked at him for dancing. Troy had been his friend since preschool, since before either of them had cared about sports and since before Chad had started dance. It hurt, but Chad dealt with it. Why couldn’t he like dancing and baseball and basketball and track? Troy, apparently, did not see it that way. He kept saying that it wasn’t right for boys to dance. He didn’t understand why his dancing was all of a sudden a problem for Troy. 

It had taken all of Marie’s reassurances to keep Chad from quitting dance or from punching Troy. It could only help so much when she told him that Troy probably didn’t think that, that it was society or maybe even Troy’s parents. It still hurt, and Chad started trying to act like dance classes were a burden instead of a joy. Somehow, that was almost worse. 

It sucked. Chad hated it, but it kept Troy and the other jocks from teasing him. 

By the end of eighth grade, Chad quit. He couldn’t deal with it anymore. Marie did what she could to comfort him, but Chad still missed his dance classes. Continuing to learn in private and from his sister’s tutelage could only do so much to replace the hole in his heart.

At least Troy respected him.

* * * * *

Next year, Ryan came back, but Chad no longer danced.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed. I have the universe relatively planned out, so stay tuned! Please feel free to comment and share headcanons!
>
>> A Virto Musae  
> By the Virtue of the Muse


End file.
